Ever

Ever is an adverb.

Ever: at any time

Questions

We use ever in questions:
Has he ever scored a goal before? (at any time in his life)
Do you ever dream about winning the lottery?
Have you ever heard of The Ivy restaurant?

Negatives

We can use not … ever in negatives, but never is more common than not ever:

Laurie doesn’t ever call me at weekends. or Laurie never calls me …
We haven’t ever had a problem with noise in the neighbourhood before or
We’ve never had a problem with noise …
We use ever in negative statements with words like no one, nobody and hardly:
No one ever told me what had happened.
I have hardly ever eaten Vietnamese food.

Ever after if

We can use ever immediately after if or in mid position (between the subject and the
main verb, or after the modal verb or first auxiliary verb, or after main verb be):
If ever you move house, I’d advise you to get a good removal company.
If you ever go to Edinburgh, make sure to visit the Art Gallery.
If I had ever wanted to stay in Manchester, they would have made me very
welcome, I’m sure.

Ever so and ever such

We use ever before so and such to add emphasis:

I feel ever so cold.
He was ever such a kind man.
 Ever since

We use ever before since to emphasise that something has been true from the

beginning of a specific period of time:
Ever since we met, we have been such great friends.
Mrs Leech doesn’t go for walks on her own ever since she fell.

As … as ever

We can use ever with the comparative form as … as …. This shows a permanent

characteristic of someone or something:
A:

How is work?
B:

Don’t ask! It’s as busy as ever.

They’ve built a new road around the city but traffic is as bad as ever.

Ever meaning ‘always’

In more formal situations, we can use ever with adjectives to mean ‘always’:

The company cannot sustain ever-decreasing profits.
Jones was ever available to help the family.

Ever and Never

Ever means 'at any time'. Never means 'at no time' or 'not at any time'. We often use
'ever' and 'never' with the present perfect, but they can also be used with other verb
tenses.

 I've never been to Brazil.

 They had never seen such a beautiful sunset before.
 Does she ever visit her mother?

In US English, 'never' and 'ever' are common with the past simple. This is less
common in UK English.

 I never saw such a big fish before.

We use 'ever' with questions.

 Have you ever studied German?

 Has Lucy ever been to the theatre?
 Do you ever come to London?

For negative questions, we can use 'not ever'.

 Doesn't he ever call his grandmother?

We use 'ever' in negative sentences if we have 'not'.

 I haven't ever been here before = I have never been here before.
 He doesn't ever take any exercise = he never takes any exercise.

We use 'ever' with negative adverbs like 'hardly' or 'barely' or 'scarcely' and in
sentences with 'nothing' or 'nobody' or 'no one'.

 Nobody has ever bought my paintings before.

 Nothing ever turns out right!
 We hardly ever go to the cinema.
 She barely ever replies to my emails.

We can use 'ever' with superlatives and adjectives like 'only' and 'first'.

 It was the first time that she'd ever been abroad.

 That is the best meal that we've ever had.
 It's the only thing that I've ever wanted.

With comparatives, we can use 'than ever'.

 She was working harder than ever.

 My life is better than ever!

We can use 'ever' after 'if'.

 If you ever want a job, let me know.

 If she ever comes to London, she can stay with me.

We can use 'never ever' to make the meaning of 'never' stronger. This is informal and
often used by children.

 I'll never ever come here again!

Sometimes 'ever' can mean 'always'.

We use 'as ... as ever' to say that something is the same as always.

 He's as kind as ever (= he's still very kind / he's as kind as always).
 The city is as exciting as ever (= the city is still very exciting / the city is as
exciting as always).
 We use 'ever since' to mean all the time since a certain point. (We can also use 'since'
without 'ever' in these examples, but 'ever' makes it stronger.)

 I've loved London ever since I was a child.

 She's wanted to have children ever since she met her husband.

We use 'ever' to mean 'always' when we say 'for ever' or 'forever'.

 I will love you for ever and ever.

We use 'ever' to mean 'always' in some compounds and in some set expressions like
'happily ever after'.

 The trees are evergreen.

 The prince and princess lived happily ever after.